Haines Borough Obituary Records

Obituary records for the Haines Borough are spread across a few key sources: state vital records held by the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics, historical death indexes from FamilySearch, published notices in the Chilkat Valley News, and the Haines Borough Public Library's newspaper archive. This page covers how to find and request death records for Haines Borough residents, what each source contains, and how far back the records go.

Death Certificates for Haines Borough

Certified death certificates for Haines Borough residents are issued by the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics. Requests can be submitted by mail, in person at the Anchorage or Juneau office, or online through VitalChek. The first copy costs $30. Additional copies ordered at the same time run $25 each. Standard mail processing takes four to six weeks. Expedited service is available for an extra fee and cuts the wait to about five to ten business days.

Death records in Alaska are governed by Alaska Statute 18.50, the state's Vital Statistics Act. Under this law, death records older than fifty years are public. More recent records can only be released to immediate family members, legal representatives, or others who can show a clear legal need. If you are researching a death that occurred within the last fifty years, you will need to show your connection to the deceased.

Haines Borough was created on August 29, 1968. Before that date, Haines functioned as an unorganized community in Southeast Alaska. Vital records for deaths before 1968 were still tracked through the state system, but local administrative records may be more limited for that period.

Historical Records on FamilySearch

FamilySearch holds several free collections with Haines-area death and vital records. The Haines Death Records collection covers 1946 through 1959. There is also a combined Haines Marriage and Death Records collection spanning 1938 to 1950, and a Haines Court Records collection running from 1941 to 1959. Together these collections give researchers access to a stretch of mid-twentieth century records for the Haines community before statehood and during the early years that followed.

These records were compiled from local government filings, missionary records, and territorial-era administrative documents. FamilySearch provides free access and many collections include scanned images of the original pages. Searching by name returns index entries, and clicking through often shows the actual document. For deaths before 1946, other territorial-era sources or the Alaska State Archives may fill in the gaps.

Researchers working on Haines Borough genealogy should check all three FamilySearch collections. Some individuals may appear in the court records but not the death records, especially if the court entry relates to an estate or guardianship proceeding following a death.

Chilkat Valley News and Local Obituaries

The Chilkat Valley News is the local newspaper serving Haines. It has published obituaries and death notices for community members for decades. For recent deaths, this is often the first place a notice appears before any official record becomes accessible. The paper covers Haines and the broader Chilkat Valley area, which includes communities accessible by road and by water in Southeast Alaska.

The Haines Borough Public Library maintains historical newspaper archives for the area. Researchers can visit the library in person to look through back issues. Some older issues may also be available through the Alaska State Library newspaper indexes, which index regional and statewide papers. If a death notice ran in a Haines-area paper, the state library index may help you find it without reading through every issue.

Published obituaries often contain details that don't appear in official vital records. They typically name surviving family members, list birthplaces, and note community affiliations. For anyone doing family research in Haines, newspaper obituaries and vital records together give a much fuller picture than either source alone.

State Archives and Probate Resources

The Alaska State Archives holds government records from all parts of the state, including materials from Southeast Alaska boroughs like Haines. Their collection guides are searchable online. Territorial-era records, court filings, and administrative documents for the Haines area may be held at the archives and can be requested by researchers.

When a Haines Borough resident dies, the estate may go through probate with the Alaska Superior Court. The Alaska probate records guide at the State Archives describes how probate files are maintained across the state and how to access them. Probate case files typically include a copy of the death certificate and may also contain biographical details, family relationships, and property information that can support obituary research.

Haines is located in Southeast Alaska and is accessible by road via the Alaska Highway, which is unusual for a Southeast Alaska community. This road access means Haines has had stronger administrative connections to the rest of the state than many remote coastal or island communities in the region. That connection is reflected in the relative completeness of the available records.

The Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics issues certified death certificates for all Haines Borough residents, including communities in the Chilkat Valley.

Death certificate requests for Haines Borough go through the state bureau, which processes both recent and historical records under Alaska's vital records law.

The Alaska State Archives collection guides help researchers identify which records are held at the state level for Southeast Alaska communities including Haines Borough.

State Archives holdings for the Haines area may include territorial court records, land records, and administrative files that document the lives and deaths of residents going back to the early twentieth century.

The Alaska State Library newspaper indexes cover regional publications that ran obituaries for Haines and the Chilkat Valley region across many decades.

Using the newspaper index alongside the FamilySearch historical collections gives researchers two distinct paths into Haines Borough death records, especially for the mid-twentieth century period.

Nearby Boroughs and Municipalities

These neighboring areas in Southeast Alaska also have obituary records pages with guidance on local death record sources.